The main thing holding this team back is 1) solid offensive play, and 2) rebounding.
The wonderful thing is that the solution for both is the same: start TH in place of JA. ML goes for 29, MR goes for 19, and what does JA have, 1 point on 0-2 (including an airball by five feet) and 1-2 free throws. Hmm, which one doesn’t belong. Conversely, TH is a prototypical small forward who is a great rebounder. Remember, he played center in high school which shows with his craftiness around the rim. TH is also the perfect compliment to RN in that as much of a workhorse RN is, he is undersized. But with TH playing in the frontcourt alongside RN and ND, we suddenly become much longer and athletic. Plus, this will help out MR so he won’t be guarding someone much larger than him....
I just want to zero in on point number 1 for now. I really think Coach Ben Howland owes more than a standard coachspeak explanation to the UCLA basketball community about his inexplicable but predictable rotation at this point of the season.
Only problem is Honeycutt has just not been playing well. It has been difficult for our team to find a rhythm though, and no word from my news sources on whether Honeycutt was indeed playing forward, or if he was stuck at point guard, for our last game. Apparently it was only available on some sort of Internet feed, which I completely missed.
Of course when the team is bad, the coach gets second guessed every which way. I don't want to do that. But I do find is conspicuous, if nothing else, that Howland, a God to UCLA fans, is getting called out like this. I don't know if there is a solution. The guys are getting better, Reeves Nelson is a standout player at this point. Other than that, we don't really have talent.
My more important question to Howland is not to second guess his coaching decisions (except really, can UCLA figure out how to play O against 1-3-1 zone defense?!), but to say what is going on with recruiting that you misread the possible talent of so many players?
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